SC asks Modi govt to pay Sohrab’s family

The Supreme Court asked the Gujarat government to pay compensation to the family of alleged gangster Sohrabuddin Sheikh shot dead by the Gujarat police along with two others in a fake encounter in November 2005. Satya Prakash reports.

The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Gujarat government to pay compensation to the family of alleged gangster Sohrabuddin Sheikh shot dead by the Gujarat police along with two others in a fake encounter in November 2005.

The bench headed by Justice Tarun Chatterjee, however, did not fix the compensation amount after senior counsel Mukul Rohatgi submitted on behalf of the Gujarat Government that it should be left to the state's discretion.

The bench also said it would consider transferring the Sohrabuddin fake encounter probe to the Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by former CBI Director RK Raghavan. The same team is inquiring into the alleged role of Chief Minister Narendra Modi in the post-Godhra communal riots of 2002.

Sohrabuddin's brother Rababuddin had filed a petition seeking a CBI probe into the killing of his brother and sister-in-law. The Supreme Court had rejected his plea for a CBI probe in May 2007 and set up a Special Investigation Team under Gujarat Inspector General of Police Geeta Johri.

But the court had in September last year agreed to consider the plea for a CBI probe afresh after senior advocate Gopal Subramanuim, who is assisting the court as Amicus Curiae, accused Johri of attempting to scuttle the probe to protect the accused police officers.